Sanctuary Secrets Sacrifice

The Great Debate

"It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light."

-Aristotle

Katie was nervous. Every time she walked in front of the board of directors, she always felt out of place. As if she didn't belong at the head of that table, their eyes on her. Oliver glanced over to Katie, noticing her slightly fidgeting, and he reached over to take her hand in his. He smiled when her eyes turned to his.

"You don't have to do this, you can-"

"I'm doing this, I just haven't been in front of these people in a while, and I'm just trying to get my head back into being a CEO." the doors slid opened and Katie took a deep breath before walking out, head held high, and Oliver at her side. She spotted Michael talking with Claire before his eyes turned to her, a smile coming to his face. It faltered when he looked over to Oliver.

"Look at you," he held up his wrist to look at his watch. "You're twenty minutes early, and you're never early."

"Shut up." Katie says glancing down the hall. "Do you have the numbers for me?" she turned back to the man. Michael gave a nod before turning to Claire who handed him a folder.

"Here you are. All quarterly and annual sales figures since RI announced it's support of Mr. Queen." Michael handed Katie the folder and the woman skimmed through it, not completely sure what it said. "It says there's been increase." she looks back up to the man and gives him a nod. "But that won't sale the board."

"Why not?"

"Because they see this union as our company ostracizing an entire market. That's dollars we're not getting. You have to go in there and convince them that this is the right decision." Michael glanced over to Oliver and just shook his head. "And to be honest, it won't be an easy sale." he turned back to the man's glare. "Look I get representing the competition seems-"

"We're not doing it." Katie replied without hesitation before stalking past the man into her/his office. Michael turned back to Oliver who took a step to follow, but Michael moved to block his way.

"This deal is good. It's a compromise that she just needs to agree to, or they will eat her alive. If they feel she's not working in the best interest of the company, or they feel like her decision making is compromised, they will vote her out. I don't know why she's adamant about this, but you need to tell her-"

"Michael, stop talking." Oliver cut the man off and let out another sigh. He always felt like he was moments away from punching the man, and he always had to pull himself back. "I'm not the CEO of this company, so I will not tell her anything. She knows what she's doing."

Even though Katie was early, she was the last to arrive in the conference room for the meeting. The silent murmuring stopped the moment she walked in, which only made her more nervous. She walked over to the head of the table, and stopped at the sight of Michael in the seat. He looked up to her, and then quickly jumped to his feet

"Right, this is your seat." he pulled it back for her and Katie took the seat, and he took the seat beside her. "Alright, everyone, I-" he turned to Katie who looked over to him with a quirked brow, and a look in her eyes that he knew meant she wanted to hit him. "Sorry, I've been doing this for a while, I'm not used to not being the boss."

"Well you should get used to it." Katie replies turning back to the members of the board. "It has been brought to my attention that there have been some change of hearts in relation to the company's backing of the Oliver Queen mayoral campaign. I would like to hear the concerns." the members were silent at first before a hand was raised and Katie gave a smile. "Mr. Campbell," she gave a nod and Joshua cleared his throat.